1985 BMW 318 Stage Rally Build - 1988 Porsche 924S Street Build - Sequoia Build

In the interest of consolidation to make it easier to keep my various projects up and running, I've decided that going forward not only will this thread cover e30 rally stuff (and the less-frequent changes/improvements on the rally car these days), but I'll also use this thread for all future updates on my other projects:

- 1988 Porsche 924S (restoration as a weekend cruiser/occasional trackday car)

- 2005 Toyota Sequoia (used as my race tow rig, utility hauler, and maybe some light overland stuff in the future someday)

- The race trailer (it's just a regular open car-hauler, but I have done some mods on it as well!)

I already have some threads/posts about these builds posted at the following links if you want to catch up, but from here on out you can just follow this thread for all of my projects!

Porsche: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1988-porsche-924s-build-not-a-bmw-this-time/121739/page1/

Sequioa: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/the-nonack-grm-budget-safari-rack/128714/page1/

Another late BRS photo by Jason Clanton. AIR!

So, to that end here's a Porsche update, since the e30 is waiting on a new seal kit for the steering rack as its next project (maybe next weekend or something).

First of all, Robert Pepper (who rallies a Porsche 944 and lives local) came by to do a final check on my timing belt/balance belt tightness. I also had to buy a new battery since was getting tired of having to jump-start the car every time. But with that done, buttoned up the timing case, and ran the car for a while. I'm pretty pleased at how smooth it idles and revs - night and day compared to the 4-banger in the e30 in terms of smoothness. Though it doens't have plates, did a quick drive up and down the street just to feel it under power :)

Then I was bored last night and ordered a bunch of stuff to finish up the interior/electrical (ok....not finish it up, but make it fully functional at least). In the meantime, I pulled out the very-cracked dashboard to mess with it and to check some wiring and blow out any dust and crap back behind it. The initial plan was to try to fix the cracks by filling them with epoxy or other stuff, and then flock it. But after messing around, I'm just going to order one of the molded plastic overlays and flock that instead. I know they're not perfect, but honestly I dont' think I can make this dash look decent in any other way without major effort or cash expenditure. 

And then I updated the project board, which I hadn't touched since before our first rally in the e30!

So while I get around to getting around to removing the e30 steering rack and replacing all the seals, here's some more Porsche stuff.

So as noted in the prior post, my dash is gnarly. I smoothed out and sealed up the big cracks, but I don't see a way to affordably or easily "repair" the dash itself. So decided to try an overlay. The one that came with the car was pretty crappy, so I got a different brand.

The initial test-fit looked promising so I went ahead and followed the instructions about where to put the black silicone (which came with it) to seal it in place. Then I strategically wrapped it with a ton of bungee cordes to keep it in place while the sealant dried

After letting it dry all I day took the bungees off and here's what it looks like

And installed. At a glance, looks pretty stock!

AFter that, time to put everything else in the dash back together. But before I did that had to make a few electrical fixes (including about 90% of the gauge cluster and dash bulbs). Instead of getting more of the original gauge bulbs, I decided to do a bit of research and get LED bulbs for everything. So about 10 of them from superbrightleds.com all installed, and now all back together.

I'm sure you'll notice that the third main gauge is dark. That's because the wedge bulbs don't work in the different type of mounts in that gauge, whcih need side contacts as well. I tried to improv it, but didn't work very well. So I did a bit more research and ordered some bulbs (LED) that should work as well. Will let you know in a while how those work out.

What else....

Well, I removed the rear seat speakers. They are pretty tough to get out without removing half the interior. So it's not surprising that they clearly have never been replaced since 1988...

Also the wiper and light stalks "kinda" worked but not well. The Porsche labeled parts are not all that cheap, but thanks to the internet, I found out that a few people have fitted VW parts from the Vanagon. So I got some, for really cheap. They'er a bit different cosmetically and a bit longer, but are plug and play. One downside is the lack fo the intermittent wiper on the VW stalk (3 total positions, off, slow, fast) vs. the porsche. So I did some parts-swapping to make it work

Took a break to do the WRX rear rotors and pads and clean up the calipers..

Then, spent like 2 hours cleaning the terribly dirty transmission. Nasty. But looks like the leak is just at the plug and not at the axles, so that's a plus...

And a bit of cosmetic cleanup in the engine bay....because it was annoying me..

More Porsche stuff. There's a rallycross this weekend so I'll get back to the e30, but I honestly haven't touched the car since the last one  so not  much to add there :)

So, things that came in the mail: These are steel replicas of the OEM Porsche aluminum lugnuts. The OEM nuts are intact and in good shape but I truly, honestly, do not like the idea of doing anything with aluminum lugnuts (and the change was highly recommended by both Porsche rally guys I know)

$30 off Amazon, can't go wrong there

Then we got our first rain in 2 weeks,, so I moved the cars outside to wash them down since both were dirty and dusty. This is the last time you'll see the 924 fully assembled with the original paint ;)

Another little project. This car originally had tan/creme interior. As noted early in my original build thread I got a complete black carpeting set in nice shape, not the dingy tan stuff. Plus, I like black. Anyhow, the one piece it was missing was the carpet covering the seatback. Eventually maybe I'll find a perfectly-matching piece for this, but in the meantim, got a rubber-backed floormat from home depot and cut it up and attached it. I think it works pretty well..

Now on to more boring paint prep. Thanks to some advice from Don on here (and a 45 minute phone call where he instructed me in the finer points of prep, prep, and more prep), Every night this week I've spent wet-sanding, removing parts and trim, etc. So getting there!

Front pieces off.....though online how-tos forgot about two screws under the center panel, which took me forever to figure out!

And bumpers off! 

Sadly my GRM sticker will have to go. Will have to get a new one after  it's painted

After some sanding, lots of parts getting ready for paint

And door mouldings and trim all taken off. Took a while to figure out how to do it easily, but once I did, it was pretty easy and I didn't mangle them like I expected to

So, I think I'm mostly done with the dent-fixing and first prep-sanding. Next I'll go over the whole car with some 500-grit or close as a final prep. Then will decide where to get it painted. The plan is to go with the original India Red, single-stage like stock. I honestly don't love red cars, but if I'm gonna do one, I'm gonna go original!

On a related note, so sad to hear of the passing of Clark of Clark's Garage, which has been a great resource for a Porsche newbie like me and much more useful than the Haynes manual or the ad-choked rennlist forum.....

So it's been a while since updates. A few non-car-related issues kind of put a delay on some of my racing and building activities, but hopefully am back at it again now.

So, let's catch up, if I can remember where I left off. Well, yeah I've been working on paint prep on the 924S. A GRM member was nice enough to offer to shoot the car for (very cheap), so I had to make sure to do at least a "reasonably ok" prep job on it. I don't much care about the car being show-quality at all. In fact I don't mind some paint flaws and such since I plan to drive the car and have fun in it and don't want to worry about paint scratches and dents...ever.

So, that's not much fun to do or talk about, so yeah lots of sanding and blocking and primer and such. In the meantime had to fix a few things....this part of the door had cracked where the window track attaches so would flex every time the window went up or down. So I just tacked it real quick, then smoothed, ground, primed, etc.

Also had to do some fiberglass repair on one corner of the sunroof

ok, that's boring. Let's go back to the e30 for October's rallycross. This was really the last-chance event for me to get back into the points running and have any chance at holding on to my 2-time championship. With 5 events down I still had no wins, with four of my competitors each having a win (and one having two). At very least, the parity in wins and finishes has kept it pretty close. Heck, even Neil Cox, with two event wins, also has a couple really bad finishes. This group is so competitive you can be top dog one day and then finish 7th the next day even if you drive at a similar level.

Another damp morning, with some newcomers - that MR2 belongs to Andy Thomas (on of the fastest FWD rallycrossers in the country) and Mike Golden (one of the top local Stock AWD guys)....who will both be joining us in MR next year. Mike brought the car out for a shakedown. He didn't win or get close, so we'll talk about that car next month or next season. Not now...

As always, MR was one of the biggest classes with a big and competitive turnout of mostly e30s. Nick also got his e36 M3 back running and out to compete. And lots of other interesting stuff.

Yeah, this Bronco ran. And actually wasn't too slow

josh Sennett has an M52 e30, and also lots of green stuff

Anyhow, it's been a few weeks so I'm not positive on details. But the long and the short of it is that we all battled it out all day long, in changing conditions, with water truck visits, and a really good course layout that was a favorite of many people of all our time here at the Rally Farm. 

In the end, I finally managed to pull off a win (!!). What does that mean? Well, it feels good to know I don't totally suck these days and can still win here and there. But due to the other finishing order and season drops, it turns out that four of us are within one point of the championship lead going into the last event (which was supposed to be tomorrow the 12th, but has been pushed back a week). So yeah...on the 19th myself, Eric Eisele, Neil Cox, and Stephen Nichols will all be going for broke in the final event, with winner taking the championship.

There is some indication that we will see SHawn Roberts and Bee Thao also running in MR in their very fast PR Miatas, as well as Mike and Andy in the MR2, and Jim Golden in his daily driver S2000 (since he's already clinched the SA points win).

So yeah....

With that said and done, a bit more Porsche stuff.

So I towed it up to PA...

And we did some masking and stuff

In this kinda creepy garage with a cool old Audi out front

Then things got primed

Then things got painted

Then I came back a few days later and towed it home, making sure to use the local landmark to find Don's house, lol. BYOB strip club? hey, why not.

So as expected, the paint looks decent from a distance, but I will have to do a good amount of color sanding, blocking, and buffing to make it look better from closer up. I have all winter for that. 

So I've been putting things back together, and it's almost back to being a complete car

Tucked back in the garage as the leaves come down...

And rallycar gets to live outside this winter. Now sitting on the Alpine Arctics...though it will get some garage time soon so I can get the steering rack removed and rebuilt...

Final RallyCross of 2017..........was last week. As noted above, four of us came in within 1 or 2 points of the season points lead, and to make things extra interesting we had a bunch of "newcomers" to the class. And by newcomers, I mean PF class champion Andy Thomas and Mike Golden driving a newly-acquired MR2 (which they'll run next year in MR), plus MA champion Jim Golden in an S2000 (on streeet tires, for fun), plus national podium-sitter Bee Thao in his newly-lifted and boosted Miata, PLUS 4-time local PR (and 2-time MR) champion Shawn Roberts bumping up to MR in his Miata, since he alraedy wrapped up PR championship.

Oh and also a bunch of e30s and stuff.......

As usual, it would turn out that conditions and first runs played a big part. The course was fairly dry, but there were a few VERY slick and muddy sections. Eric Eisele went first as the points leader, and slipped and slided his way around the tough areas. I went next and did the same, but lost several seconds in a very tight and slick area. How tight and slick? The FIVE cars after me all slid outside the gate for an off-course on the first run. Wow. So after one run, basically it was me vs. Eric for the rest of the day - and him starting with a 3-second cushion after one  run.

So, we raced. Both of us were quick and with few errors (and some others in the class, with nothign to lose, were even quicker and started catching up). After seven runs I had only shaved about 1 second off of Eric's lead (if that). Down to the last run, had to push it (also took a rider - a friend of the site owner's, so what the hell...). I pushed, got out of sorts, took out a couple cones, and in the end did not catch Eric (in fact, fell quite a ways back).

So, 2nd place it is. Guess I can't complain after taking the championship in 2015 and 2016. Eric was truly faster than me this year (as was his codriver Neil Cox) at most events. The only reason I stayed in the points race was from consistency.  Such is life. Meanwhile, with Golden, Thomas, and Shawn all joining MR next year and all the BMW guys continuing to get faster, it looks like the championship window may have closed for me anyhow. Well, we'll see ;)

So packed up the little trailer for the last time this season (unless we get a local snow event) and headed out....

Once again, much thanks to my sponsors - especially Condor Speed Shop

And huge congrats to the Dirty Industries boys - Eric Eisele taking the championship, and his co-driver Neil Cox tying for 3rd just behind me (with Stephen Nichols)

Also a shout out to other guys in the class who are fast and getting faster but couldn't quite catch us this year....

Josh Sennett 

The other M42 guys

Nick finally with the M3 out playing, if not quite sorted yet

And the rest of our dirty e30 crew

Then off to the car wash, where they made me use the "truckers area" since there was too much mud. Gotta power wash so I can do some work on the car this winter without dirt everywhere in my garage!

So, let's do a bit of updating now that the holidays are over. I didn't do much of anything on any cars over the holidays seeing as I was pretty busy on real life stuff, work, family, and it was seriously cold around here.

But here are some things. First, my birthday present to myself, courtesy of ebay. Some staggered (16x7 front, 16x8 rear) Style 90's off of a 911 for my 924s. These look pretty much perfect on the 924 body, and will allow me to have a better selection of tires than the stock phone dials. I also like that they still give an 80s-ish look, rather than getting something aftermarket. 

Pulled the Porsche out to run it around the block

Also the e30, of course

So now on to some actual e30 stuff. This is mostly outstanding issues that I didn't deal with before. First, fuel gauge. All last year the digital and stock fuel gauges were both on the fritz. Sometimes worked, sometimes not, and rarely accurate. That made for a lot of guessing on fuel load in rally, and meant we always had to fill the tank to know how much fuel we had. Especially bad for rallycross, where I'd rather carry 1/2 a tank than a full tank.

So got one off ebay from a vendor that makes cheap digital gauges. Time will tell how it holds up, but it works great and appears to be decent quality. Unlike my more expensive autometer LCD gauge that died after less than a year, this one also dims with the interior lighting correctily.

It has four "set" calibrations. The ohm range on one of them was pretty close to the e30 stock range (which is apparently an unusual range since no gauges seem to accommodate it except programmable ones). So as you can see, there is a reminder about where empty really is, lol

Oh, also got a Christmas present from the parents....some comms for the tow rig. I like this one because it's almost entirely in the handset and doesn't need an additional amp box.

they got me an antenna too

so, that will be nice to have on long hauls and local at rallies, especially if Jim gets one for whatever utility vehicle he buys (he's shopping).

ok. more e30. Well, spent a good amount of time cleaning up the interior, which was horribly dirty and just pretty disgusting. I also put my spare seat cover on my driver's seat, since the one on there was worn through in about 4 spots. I would be really nice if Sparco would make some covers that have some reinforced fabric over the lower sides of the seats, which get torn up from getting in and out of the car. No pics of that, but it looks like the old cover, except new.

The other outstanding issue from most of 2017 was a bad steering rack leak. Still perfectly functional, but at full lock would literally spray fluid into the wheel well. I initially removed the rack (e36 standard) and was going to rebuild it with new seals. But halfway through that, I thought "hey, why not get something better." So I scoured junkyards online and found a place out in Oregon with a wrecked Z3 with low miles on it. Got them to pull the rack and ship it to me for a reasonable cost. The Z3 rack is pretty much the same overall ratio as the regular e36, but the e36 rack is progressive rate, with slower rate at/near center - giving it a bit of a 'dead spot'. Nice for highway cruising so it's not twitchy - but not as good for racing. The Z3 rack is linear all the way through, so should be quicker in initial response from center. Guess we'll see.

next to the e36 rack. as you can see, the tie rod ends are different.

2 degrees outside so had the propane heater cranked while I installed this. The Porsche gets to sit out in the winter weather for a while

installed, no biggie. I also got a new filter/reservoir and a new steering guibo - but didn't do the guibo at this time since I coudlnt' get the u-joint off the steering column splined section and it's too cold to deal with that at the moment. The old one looks fine, but would like to replace it this summer anyhow.

The inner tie rods that came on it feel tight and good. The outers were tight, but the boots were torn. 

Unfortunately, can't use my spares since I converted the e36 rack to e30 tie rods, and they're opposite thread (female-male vs. male-female) on the rod end. Grr.

So, RockAuto to the rescue...

I get fairly cheap ones since they get replaced a lot. Bought full inner and outer so I have some spare inners, plus two spare outers. $50 all told, can't beat that.

Also got some fancy red lugnuts off ebay, since the ones on the car were getting pretty thrashed from 4 years of impact guns. I like the bright colors since they're easy to find in dirt/gravel/snow if dropped during service or changing flats on stage.

So, that's it for the moment. Wellsboro winter rally is in about a month. Trying to put together a schedule for the rest of the year as well, which will hopefully include rally, rallycross, ice racing, and at least one Chumpcar (er...Champcar) enduro race. TBD!

While Nonack is continuing to use his awesome shop, considerable fabrication skills, and work ethic to make his Merkur rally car the equivalent of an turbo-snorting Abrams Tank (lift on jumps? If he ever did, he won't any more).....well, what I am I donig?

Well, I'm a Fed, so right now I'm furloughed and the financial situation is TBD (though I expect we'll get reimbursed), so no spending any money on anything on the rally car, as if I had much to spend in the first place. Saving it for entry fees...if I break the car, will fix it then. The DC rallycross schedule came out too....9 events this year, so that's good news since the "real rally" budget will be limited to probably 2, perhaps 3 events. We'll see.

Uh...I did an alignment and drove the rallycar about 40 miles today with the new steering rack. It was totally uneventful. No leaks, no unusual vibrations, nothing interesting at all, other than a sudden 10mph S-curve on a 45-mph road out in the middle of nowhere, that was REALLY a 10mph S-curve.....which was interesting in an e30 with snow tires and no swaybars...wooooo!

So basically, I did nothing on the rally car.

I did spend a couple hours in the back of the Sequoia doing wiring and installing a Mag-lite mount, while removing the 3rd-row seatbelts. Mostly finishing a project I started a while back but got sidetracked from: adding a couple of bright LED lights tied into the reverse lights. I already have the roof-mounted floods (switched), but that's a pain for regular reversing in a dark parking lot or something (plus, I keep covers on them). So a couple down low just for reversing (and helping in late-night trailer hookups, I guess):

Then took the Porsche wheels and tires to get mounted, got that done and brought them home. And of course had to fit them up immediately. These are a staggered set of 911 wheels (16x8 and 16x9), and I'm pleased that everything fits perfectly. Tires are BFG G-Force Comp2 A/S, 205/55/16 front and 225/50/17 rear. I hate to compromise on tires, but I don't want to have mutliple season sets for yet another car, so high-performance all-seasons it is.

paint still looks E36 M3ty, but working on it...

My helper wanted to wash the car, so wash it we did...

Fleet

irish44j said:

turbo-snorting Abrams Tank

Not an Abrams, but you get the idea:  

I'm think my approach to improving the Merkur has more in common with those Soviet tanks anyway- "How is broken?!  This time, more steel comrade!"

The Sequoia has turned into a pretty serious rig, I guess I need to add more stuff to Chief if I want to stay in the service vehicle arms race...

lol, Russian tank for sure.

The Sequoia is just for messing around with. It's nice never HAVING to do anything on it, so I can just fool around with nonessential stuff. Plus almost everything I do for it is cheap or free. You just make sure Chief's trailer lighting hookup actually works! You already are way ahead on the lights, antennas, and overall coolness factor with Chief :)

Doing preparations on the rally car for Wellsboro Winter Rally next week. Nothing much to show on that, just making sure everything is good to go (which is appears to be). Weather is looking semi-promising, with several days of snow recently there, so maybe it will be a true winter rally this year rather than a mud and rocks rally. Fingers crossed!

Will be going over to Robert Pepper's place this weekend to help him out wiht work on the Rally Badger Porsche 944, and to borrow a couple tools to do a rear wheel bearing on my 924, not a fun job at all, from what I hear. Other than that, the Porsche is ready to do some driving. The latest thing I did was to alter the rear OEM carpet to get rid of the compact "inflatable" spare tire which seems annoying and pointless with a full-size spare. That required some strategic cutting and fitting, but I think it came out decent, thanks to one of my Tire Rack wheel covers

Also got my permanent plates for the car in :)

And did some garage cleaning so I can find all the tools and stuff I need to take to WMWR

That plate is really good   

Do you need crew for WMWR?  Has Pepper figured out how to keep his rear suspension from folding up yet?

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

hah, no idea. They've been putting a new engine in it, possibly with boost. I will see what they're up to tomorrow. I think his rear suspension folded up because he jumped onto big rocks trying not to land on Matt Petersen, lol...

As to WMWR crew....I would never say no to that. We have a crew room, and only 2 people in it right now....so you're welcome to come down, lend a hand, hang out, and crash in that room, etc. I'm sure Ozgur won't bring his own crew and it's the maiden rally for his e30 too.....We're staying downtown Wellsboro, as usual.

Hit me up for details, but bottom line is me and Jim will be there early afternoon on Friday and Sennett and Stephen will show up more toward evening drinking time!

2018 Wellsboro / Waste Management Winter Rally (WMWR)

This was our third time running WMWR. For those who don't follow, it's the first 2 stages of the big STPR rally, run three times each direction – about 40-50 miles of of mostly tight, technical stages, with a few places to open it up. Usually this rally, being in February in upstate Pennsylvania, is snowy. Four years ago I crewed there and it snowed about 2 feet the weekend of the rally. Last two years, not so much....one year was frigid but no snow on the ground. Last year it got warm and everything melted so it was a water/mud-fest. This year, as luck would have it, there was a very warm (70-degree) day 2 days before the rally that melted everything, and then it got super-cold and re-froze all that melted snow and mud as ice.

Due to conditions there were less entries than normal, but almost all of them were in the R2U class (aka Group 2) for 2WD cars under 2.5L. Most of the Subarus stayed home (only two entered). But who cares. Some of our favorite regulars were there, running in our class, so that's always good to benchmark our performance. The big question was tires, due to the conditions. We brought six snows, four soft gravels, and a pair of Maxsport mud tires. Everyone ran recce, and the course was fairly icy and also fairly rough – so the trade off is less traction with gravels than with snow tires, but way tougher and less chance of tire damage/flat/debead. Whereas snows are pretty wimpy comparatively.

About 2/3 of the competitors showed up to the rally start on snow tires, risking flats, and the other 1/3 on gravels, betting they would have enough grip. To jump to the end, snow tires turned out to be the right choice as the guys on gravels had a lot of grip issues, and oddly enough NOBODY flatted any snow tires (though Alan Edwards did flat a gravel). I'm pretty surprised – even being somewhat careful with the tires (we flattted two snows in 2016 at this event), I was sure a few times we had killed a tire.

Due to the usual start order drama at rallies, I told the registrar “just start us last, I don't even care.” So we started last on the road. Only two other RWD cars entered (both e30s) and one of them had to withdraw due to a mechanical issues. So it was us against Ozgur Simsek (who built my cage), doing his first event in his newly-built M52 e30 (the white shell I found for him). Gus Garrido, who he usually codrives for, swiched seats to the navigator side and had a tough time “keeping it down” so to say, and they didn't finish due to an exhaust leak and a sick navigator. So it was us against all the front-wheel drive cars, including last year's overall runner-up Sean Burke in his CRX and Alan Edwards in the fast Neon. Also a couple VW golfs, some Fiestas, etc. With the conditions, it was going to be tough to hang with the FWD cars I figured.

The course was somewhat shorter than usual due to a couple stage sections being almost impassible, so they added a sixth stage (usually five) to make up the mileage. Also the spectator jump used at STPR for big-air shots was slowed down via a triple chicane with some big hay bales right at the apex (the third bale wasn't visible until you crested the jump), since SCCA rallysprint rules like to keep the wheels on the ground (though I think we all got a little bit of air cocked sideways over it anyhow).

Anyhow, we got going, starting a minute behind a long-time rallyist in the old GTI that he ahs been rallying for 15 years – but he was on gravels. About 3 minutes into the stage we caught them – and spent a minute or so tailing them trying to find a place to pass (they didn't see us there). Eventually we came out of a right-3 onto the main spectator straight / jump / chicane and went for it on his left, with our left wheels off of the course. Luckily he saw us finally and we snuck by up the straight right before the chicane, and finished that stage.

Next stage we moved up a spot in start order so as not to catch the VW again and instead caught one of the Fiestas. Tailed them for a while and then got a bit aggressive on a downhill left-2 and I spun the car a 270, then, backed into a tree trying to turn around (no damage- metal bumpers!). We got going and caught them again near the end of the stage.

Stage 3 was uneventful and we made it into service with no damage, no flats, and sitting near the top of the class due to some mistakes (either in tire choice or in driving) by our competitors.
After service we went out managed to spin on an icy uphill which we barely got up after getting the car turned around, and also had a soft off between some trees, which we backed out of quickly. On stage 5 we came around a long corner to find class leader Burke's CRX off the course high-centered on some snow. After a minute of trying to get his tow hook on our lousy front hooks, we yanked him out (hooray for light cars!). As we did that our buddy Brian Battochi slipped by us in his Impreza and we took off after him and Neil Schafer (who crewed for us at Black River, if you recall). Brian was pushing hard, having lost a lot of time in two prior tree-incidents and we pushed hard as well, staying right behind them for the remaining 3-4 miles of the stage, except on some icy uphills.

6th stage was uneventful as everyonoe was being a bit more careful trying to finish.

In the end, Jim wrote an inquiry (he loves inquiries!) and we got a minute back for stopping to help Burke. But it didn't matter either way, as we ended up winning the class by almost 3 minutes over our buddy Alan Edwards in the Neon, who beat us badly last year. We also finished second overall, only behind the (only) turbo Subaru there, Matt Chmliewski. 

All in all, a good time. Challenging conditions and the tight stages are perfect for a ralllycrosser like me, if not a bit rough in some areas. The car performed flawlessly, didn't take any damage that I know of (yet), no flats, and we only had a few “oh E36 M3” moments (a couple of which were in the tow rig later that night after it snowed 3” during the awards ceremony! Jim was dead-on with the notes and that meant very few surprises for me driving. Our crew was on the spot all weekend, as usual – Josh Sennet our crew chief + Amanda Pemberton, Mike Seitz, and Stephen Nichols. Thanks again to the event staff, organizers, and volunteers. WMWR is always fun, regardless of snow or ice or mud, and we'll definitely keep coming back!

For those of you on facebook, come check out our page/photo album (my photos and other photos of us) here: [url]https://www.facebook.com/pg/PitchblackRally/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1873762815998833[/url]

Also some great photos of a lot of the rally action at Lori Lass's page here: [url]https://photoamma.smugmug.com/Cars/WMWR-2018/n-VHMhJR/[/url]

I will post up some of them here once I get a chance to upload, etc. Mike Seitz took a bunch of photos but usually takes a while to upload. Plus we'll have a bunch of video once Jim gets editing done. And most of the photogs on course will post their stuff up eventually which should have some cool shots.

^^ also I'm sure I remember some things wrong (it happens as we get older, and there was a good amount of alcohol consumed this weekend), so if you were there (Jim, anyone else) and feel like adding to the story or correcting me - go for it!

I guess all that rally stuff is getting boring at this point, so back to nuts and bolts stuff, lol. Anyhow, with the rally car still on the trailer since my yard is way too wet to put the trailer away in the back without leaving muddy ruts, will let it sit for a few days and do some work on the Porsche. As previously noted the 924 is making a lot of noise from the back, which we narrowed down to a wheel bearing - Robert Pepper and myself determined it was from the right rear. He was nice enough to let me borrow all of his Porsche-specific-ish tools since he does wheel bearings often, rallying a 944. So big-ass 3/4 drive breaker bar with a big hub nut socket, a heavy slide hammer, and the 944-specific bearing press kit. I will say in advance, I have read a lot of horror stories about how much of a pain in the ass this job is, with a hub nut torqued to 350+ ft/lbs but usually requiring double that to break free, stuck bearings, etc etc.

First order of business: freeze the bearings to make them easier to put in

Then I pulled the CV axles, which on this car unbolt from both the stub axle and the diff with 12-point (triple-square) driver bolts. Thankfully I ordered triple-square set a few months back. These were gunky enough I had to wire-brush and clean them heavily just to get the driver into the holes. Cleaned all this stuff further once off the car.

After that, I easily pulled the hubs with the slide hammer (btw, decided to do both sides at once). Then I broke my "heavy-duty" spring clip wrench on the second hub, after successfully getting these big spring clips out. Had to run to the local autozone to get a replacement, doh. After that, was able to press the right side bearing out intact....though (by hand) it felt smooth, lots of indications that it was anything but good..

The left side bearing didn't come out as one piece, leaving an inner race on the hub. Without a bearing separator handy, I dremeled it down, hit it a couple times with a chisel, and managed to pop it off with little effort. This bearing looked bad too, and the outer section definitely had some crunchiness to it, so seems both sides were bad - though the non-matched grease suggests to me that they've been done at least once before - I guess not surprising for a 30-year-old car. 

After that, used some emory cloth to clean up everything, and pressed new bearings in with little issue, pulled the hubs back in, re-installed the CV axles, cleaned up the brake rotors (repainted the rotor hubs), and adjusted the ebrake, which had never worked very well. 

All in all, about a 4-hour job working at a leisurely pace and being careful. Not bad for the first time on this car. Since the trailer is currently blocking my garage I couldn't test drive it today, but pretty confident that the noise was these awful bearings. So, hope that was enough excitement for you!

Writeup was great, but pictures in the post always help. Waste Management is on my list of rallies to do.

Yeah, I'll have more pics and vids over the next week as they get posted.

Here's one from Battocchi's in-car when he was slipping by us while we were pulling Burke's CRX ouf of a ditch

Here are a couple from our crew guy/photographer Mike Seitz

Looks like so much fun! 

Awesome!! Hoping with the Merkur improvements we will be able to take it off the lift and come play at WMWR next year. But, I am sure Chris will find a new and interesting way to break it by then .

You were right, it does look faster on the internet...

But it also looks a lot better like this than all clean and shiny. 

I very much enjoyed WMWR- they have some great spectator spots.

Sandblast Rally 2018~

This isn't really an event we want to do in our 2WD low-power car, due to the deep sand that is brutal on drivetrain. So instead, I headed down to crew for Adam Moore's Zero car (the course-opening care), since they had no crew. I hadn't previously been to Sandblast and wanted to check it out so it was a good time to head down. So I packed up the Sequoia and headed south to Cheraw, SC.

On the way I made a stop to visit my sister and also fellow DC rallycrosser Neil Cox, had a few beers and checked out their progress on their rallycross e30 and Neil's 1970 volvo wagon

Got down to Cheraw on Friday morning and we immediately did some work to get the car fully prepped. Zero car is extra important that it not break or crash since it has to open each stage for competition. This is Adam's street/rallycross car (no cage, etc) since course cars cannot have full cages (to discourage drivers from going full-out on course).

Also got to run the practice stage in the Sequoia, heading out to help tow a stuck truck out of the stage. Driving a big truck (fully loaded) at decent speed in this stuff was an adventure

The next morning, due to the complicatoins of running a rally, navigator-extraordinaire Matt Rhoades had to do some organizational and steward work, so for the first two stages I got to jump in with Jeff (I forget his last name), a long-time rallyist running the fast sweep vehicle (the first non-competition car after the racers, meant to see who is off course, help people, etc). Jeff has been rallying since the 1980s in everything from Datsun 510s to Mazda RX-2s to Shelby Chargers, so he can drive. On this day, we were in his first-generation Grand-Cherokee, running in 2WD, and he liked to use the ebrake a lot. I'm pretty sure he was runnign the course faster than many of the actual rally cars....we did a lot of sideways action, bouncing through ruts, and some seriously hard hits – enough that we broke the HAM radio antenna off the roof! I got to call tulips (directional notes) for him, which is new to me since I'm usually on the other side of the car.

After that, headed to the service area to do some crewing for Zero – which thankfully didn't break any thing or crash, so it was a pretty relaxing day.

Not the case for many other competitiors though. Sandblast is BRUTAL on cars....huge sand-ruts, wildly changing surfaces, and hard on the cars. Of the 40-something cars that started I think only about 15 actually finished every stage. There were several rollovers (including Seamus Burke's beautiful $$$$$$$$ Mk2 Escort that often wins rallies and Sergei Grishin's Impreza, which is not too unusual). Lots of blown transmisisons and other issues as well.

Gary DeMasi hit a tree head-on just a mile into the first stage, ending his day early (Gary's photo, by the way)

In the end, just finishing was a good chance at getting a podium spot – proven in the 2WD light class, where a first-time rallyist in a Honda Fit took 3rd in class by driving clean and not breaking.

And there was much celebration

All told, a good time. Still dont' think we'll do this one unless I have a spare engine to swap in, lol....seems like my car would be awful in these conditions. Anyhow, here's some more pics of stuff...\

You all may recognize “The Chief” - Chris Nonack's service/crew/tow rig there with mine. Chris was there as the lone crew member for the 3rd place Fit team, teaching them his tricks.

Cool stuff that was there

McNamara's signature move

Yes, this is a former 24 Hours of LeMons car....and it finished the entire rally!